South Korea to purchase 10 Israeli radars to beef up air surveillance
Updated: 2014-04-09 21:54:34 KST

The discoveries of three suspected North Korean drones in less than a month on South Korean soil has prompted Seoul to take action.
The government said Wednesday that it would be adopting Israel's tactical air surveillance radar system.
A government source said an emergency budget of around 19 million U.S. dollars will be drawn up to purchase 10 low-altitude RPS-42 radars and other surveillance equipment this year.
They will be deployed at key government facilities, including the presidential office and on the west coast next year.
The South's current radars aren't capable of detecting the North's small-sized drones, but the newly adopted Israeli system is.
It can detect all types of aerial objects as small as half a meter in size within a 30-kilometer radius, and has an altitude range of 10 kilometers.
The Korean military has been under fire for allowing the unmanned aerial vehicles to infiltrate its airspace, which represents a national security threat.

In another effort to boost the nation's military readiness, Korea has asked the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency to purchase more than a hundred advanced missiles.
The agency said Tuesday that it had notified Congress of a possible sale of missiles, equipment and parts to Seoul.
Korea plans to buy 76 Sidewinder Block II missiles and 32 Captive Air Training missiles at a cost of nearly 100 million U.S. dollars to help counter threats from North Korea.
Hwang Ji-hye, Arirang News.